2025 might already be Kendrick Lamar’s year.
It’s a familiar story for the Pulitzer-Prize winning rapper, who’s received dozens of accolades in his career and dominated pop culture in 2024 thanks to a now-iconic feud with Drake. But the new year is off to an even stronger start.
Over the weekend, he picked up five Grammys for his massive diss track “Not Like Us,” including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The star-studded audience, including Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, were particularly enthusiastic about Lamar’s victories. As he walked onstage to receive the Record of the Year Grammy in a seemingly intentional all-denim outfit known as a “Canadian tuxedo,” you could hear the crowd rap along to the song as it played throughout the arena. The entire moment was a nice boost for the months-old diss track and a reminder of Lamar’s import leading up to the biggest gig of his career this weekend: headlining the Super Bowl LIX halftime show.
This won’t be Lamar’s first time on the NFL’s big broadcast. In 2022, he appeared in the halftime show’s first-ever hip-hop lineup, alongside Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Mary J. Blige, where he performed his 2015 political anthem “Alright.” Lamar’s segment was a standout in a rather chaotic medley, due to his energetic stage presence and poignant visuals. Even with the halftime show’s mediocre track record with rap, it felt inevitable that he would grace the telecast again at some point.
Lamar arguably could’ve taken on the show by himself years ago. However, “Not Like Us” provided the perfect moment of organic enthusiasm and renewed respect for the critically acclaimed artist. Still, his coming performance brings up a number of questions, from what happened to his previous concerns about the NFL to if he’ll even be able to play his hit song, which is currently the subject of a defamation lawsuit.
Here are five questions you might have about this year’s highly anticipated Super Bowl headliner and what may or may not go down on Sunday, answered to the best of our ability.
Why is Lamar’s halftime show such a big deal?
Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show will most likely be historic for quite a few reasons, but a big one is that he’s the first solo rap act to headline the show in the broadcast’s almost 60-year history. The music segment has certainly evolved since the early days of hosting college marching bands and the unsettling, feel-good dance group Up With People, now welcoming contemporary pop acts from Lady Gaga to The Weeknd. However, the NFL has been more hesitant to fully embrace rap, despite it being one of the most popular genres of music in the world.
Even with its diverse talent, the show has historically catered to or at least made decisions based on its largely white viewership with inoffensive, apolitical artists. That said, when obscene moments — like Justin Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson’s nipple in 2004 — and political messaging — like Beyoncé honoring the Black Panther Party in 2016 — have occurred on the halftime show, NFL viewers and the league itself have responded in histrionic ways. In addition to the wave of backlash from conservative media, the Federal Communications Commission received numerous complaints about Beyoncé’s “Formation” performance. Meanwhile, the NFL sued musician M.I.A. for $16 million in restitution after she extended her middle finger during Madonna’s halftime show in 2012.
While rappers like Nelly, Big Boi, and Nicki Minaj have appeared in a guest capacity, it wasn’t until 2022 that hip-hop dominated the stage. It’s a decision that seemingly wouldn’t have happened if not for a recent partnership between the NFL and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Entertainment. Since 2020, Roc Nation has co-produced the halftime show with a notably diverse mix of guests, including Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, Rihanna, and, most recently, Usher. That said, Lamar’s headlining might just normalize more hip-hop acts getting booked for the show.
Why is Lamar getting a halftime show now?
2024 was an unexpected moment of hypervisibility for Lamar, thanks to a highly publicized beef with Drake. While Lamar had been sneak-dissing Drake for nearly a decade, taking shots at his “fake” rap persona to his alleged habit of using ghostwriters, Lamar’s guest verse of the Future and Metro Boomin’ song “Like That” made his self-proclaimed hatred for the Canadian rapper known in a way it hadn’t been before. The relatively tame “F— the Big 3” bar on the track kicked off a weeks-long back-and-forth between Drake, Lamar and an entire Avengers-like ensemble of Drake’s industry adversaries.
However, it was Lamar’s catchy, Mustard-produced “Not Like Us” that rose to the top of a litany of diss tracks. The song, where Lamar calls Drake a “certified pedophile”“ and claims he “should be placed on neighborhood watch,” initially felt a bit uncomfortable to listen to, particularly following the domestic abuse allegations Drake had made against Lamar on another diss track. Over time, though, “Not Like Us” has become an ode to Black LA culture, a go-to club banger, and even an international protest song.
Later in November 2024, Lamar released his sixth album, GNX, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The album didn’t feature “Not Like Us,” but still produced several hit singles, including “squabble up,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the SZA-featured song, “luther,” which peaked at No. 3.
Will Lamar get political?
About a decade ago, it was a much safer bet that a Kendrick Lamar halftime show would feature some sort of political statement or imagery. Since becoming a known face in rap, Lamar has voiced pro-Black, anti-establishment opinions to the anger of conservatives and Fox News anchors. In particular, his 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly, which featured singles “Alright” and “The Blacker the Berry,” made him a symbol for the Black Lives Matter movement — the former song becoming a rallying cry against police brutality.
That era also established Lamar as a provocative and politically charged live act. In his performance of “Alright” at the 2015 BET Awards, Lamar rapped on top of a cop car with a giant American flag waving behind him. It also included a snippet of a Fox News segment criticizing the anti-cop lyrics in the song. At the 2016 Grammys, he performed a medley from To Pimp a Butterfly, appearing with a group of Black men in shackles and prisoner outfits.
Over time, though, Lamar has seemed less interested in playing the role of a political mascot. On his 2021 collaboration with Baby Keem, “Family Ties,” Lamar rebukes his former activist label, saying, “I been duckin’ the social gimmick / I been duckin’ the overnight activists / I’m not a trending topic, I’m a prophet.” Recently, his output has been characterized more by pettiness and a sense of personal triumph than politics, as seen through the “Not Like Us”/GNX era.
It was clear that he had resigned from a more radical position when he performed at the halftime show in 2022. In 2017, the rapper, along with many of his peers, expressed support for free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick after the NFL player claimed that he had been blackballed by the league for kneeling during the National Anthem.
While Lamar never actively boycotted the NFL or the halftime show in solidarity with Kaepernick, his embrace of the platform speaks to a watered-down approach to politics in the latter part of his career, more focused on representation than calling out institutions. With this headlining gig, many would argue that Lamar, along with Jay-Z, are merely providing a PR cleanup for the NFL and their historical mistreatment of Black players.
On top of that, the Super Bowl halftime show is not typically a platform to broadcast revolutionary messages. Although previous performers like Jennifer Lopez and Eminem have been allowed to make political statements during the segment, creating the appearance that the NFL is actually tolerant of political dissent, these haven’t exactly been table-shaking sentiments. Meanwhile, the NFL is removing its “End Racism” messaging from the Super Bowl end zone for the first time since it was added in 2021.
Still, perhaps another Trump administration will inspire the sort of attention-grabbing stunts that defined the To Pimp a Butterfly era. On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that President Donald Trump would be attending the Super Bowl, making him the first sitting president to do so. If Lamar performs “Alright” in front of the president — which he most likely will — it will certainly be received as a powerful statement.
Will Lamar even be allowed to play “Not Like Us”?
While it seems like a no-brainer that Lamar would perform “Not Like Us,” the song is the subject of a lawsuit brought on by Drake that has made performing the song publicly, let alone on the most-watched telecast, a little complicated.
On January 15, Drake filed a lawsuit against the record label, Universal Music Group, to which he and Lamar are both signed under different divisions, for defamation regarding the lyrics in “Not Like Us.” He filed the suit a day after he withdrew a petition he filed in in November accusing UMG and Spotify of “artificially inflating” the popularity of the diss track, as well as participating in a pay-for-play scheme with iHeartRadio.
The defamation suit claims that the allegations in the song — specifically, the “certified pedophile” line — have put Drake and his family in danger. The suit references an incident on May 7, 2024, a few days after the song was released, when an armed group drove to Drake’s Toronto home and at least one person with a gun allegedly shot a security guard. The suit lists two other break-in attempts at Drake’s home over the following two days.
Notably, though, Drake is suing UMG for its promotion of the song — not Lamar for making it. That said, the risk of Lamar getting in trouble for performing the already widely played song is pretty low, according to First Amendment litigator Ken White. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s an easy choice — White told the Los Angeles Times last month that other parties, like the NFL and Fox, “who are helping to publish what [Lamar] says” could potentially be brought into the legal saga if he’s allowed to perform it. “If I were an in-house counsel, I’d be telling them not to do it,” he said.
We’ll see on Sunday whether keeping the Grammy-winning song off the setlist or courting defamation charges is a bigger risk.
Will there be any other guests?
The slate of peers, mentors, and collaborators Lamar possibly could invite onstage during his halftime show is pretty vast. Back in August, he hosted the Amazon live concert called The Pop-Out: Ken and Friends, where he celebrated the West Coast hip-hop community by bringing a slew of local artists — including some of his former Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates — dancers, and even gang members onstage. Likewise, an appearance from mentor Dr. Dre, who he gave a shoutout to while accepting Record of the Year, seems likely. It also wouldn’t be a surprise if he brought out krumping innovator Tommy the Clown, who, along with his crew of dancers, appears in the “Not Like Us” music video.
Still, so far, Lamar’s former labelmate SZA is the only artist confirmed to join the halftime show. The two have a history of collaborations as TDE’s’s premier flagship artists, including the Oscar-nominated song “All of the Stars” from the Black Panther soundtrack and “luther.” They’re also about to embark on their recently announced a nationwide stadium tour beginning in April. The halftime show obviously serves as an ideal promotional vehicle.
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